Tony Blair has spelled out a rallying call to put the brakes on Brexit.

The former Labour Prime Minister has launched a personal crusade to get the decision to leave the EU reversed - which he insists is "above everything else right now for the country."

In an interview with a national newspaper today (Saturday December 16), Mr Blair, who served as premier for a decade, says: "To leave the European Union is just an extraordinary thing to do.

Tony Blair: 'Like leaving the Premiership to play in the Championship' (Picture: Victoria Jones/PA Wire)

'It's like deciding to play in the Championship'

"It’s a decision to relegate ourselves as a country. It’s like being a top-six Premier League football club, and deciding to play in the Championship from now on.

"If you think it’s the most important decision this country has taken in living memory, then even if you think there’s only a small chance of it being changed, if you think that’s the right thing to do, you should be up arguing for it.”

Decision time: the EU referendum count at the Guildhall in June last year

Mr Blair's words are sure to find a powerful echo in Cambridge, where people voted in last year's referendum three to one to stay. The city voted 73.8 cer cent Remain, 26.2 per cent Leave.

Even though his own party is refusing to oppose Brexit, he believes it can be halted, through public pressure and parliamentary opposition.

He says: "I understand it’s a very pragmatic position that the Labour Party’s taking. And I don’t disapprove of pragmatism in politics at all. But I still think it’s the wrong choice.

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"I think what the Labour party is essentially doing is saying: ‘There are a number of Labour voters who voted leave, and if we are painted as the anti-Brexit party, we’re going to lose that support.

"Therefore, what we should do is say: We’re going to do Brexit, and try to take Brexit out of the equation for our electorate, so they can vote [for us] on other issues.’ I completely get that. It’s a piece of political strategy. It’s actually what a lot of people would advise you to do.

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'We're in the same position as the Tories'

"But I think there are two problems with it. The first is that our language may be different, but we’re actually in the same position as the Tories, which is to say we’ll get out of the single market but we want a close trading relationship with Europe.

"Your risk is that, at a certain point, you get exposed as having the same technical problem that the Tories have, which is: here’s the Canada option, here’s the Norway option, and every time you move towards Norway you’ll be accepting the rules of the EU, but you’ve lost your say in it, and every time you move towards the Canada option you’re going to be doing economic damage."

He says that the "whole country has been pulled into this Tory psychodrama over Europe,” accusing the Conservatives of being "profoundly divided."

He adds: "I’d like to see a Labour government in power. But I think the key national priority right now is stopping Brexit. I would put it above everything else right now for the country."